You have an incling of a point, but I think it's not the right one. The right answer would be: a) streaming media with DRM, b) Windows Media Services.
Real player just wisened up recently and opened up Helix as a platform for serving content.
That is the only reason IMO that WMP files (such as ASX, or WMV) have gained popularity: because Microsoft makes it easy for business to distribute such content.
On the other hand, all 'free' content (trailers, personal movie clips etc), I've seen lately is predominantly on Quicktime.
Ok, if I knew a platform had WMP and might have Quicktime, I still would use Quicktime, just as I wouldn't and don't hesitate to use Flash. Because of the auto-detect/install-on-demand feature.
Come on man, don't be blinded by hate, it's the *easiest* thing to embed a quicktime movie into a web page... what are you talking about?
That's the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard. Microsoft can't have a monopoly on video formats... because it doesn't have a monopoly on the computer world. Mac users will use mov files, and that's it.
If you still disagree, how come almost *all* movie trailers are.mov files? How does that qualify as monopolistic?
To push your point even further: this European law is really really stupid. Fine, you want to accuse Microsoft of being a monopoly on the browsers... do it...
But this? Apparently Quicktime and RealOne suffered (those are the main parties at stake here)...
Well, *NEWS FLASH FOR EVERYONE*: WMP does *not* play.rm or.mov files!!!!
How can they be a monopoly on it if they don't support quicktime and RealOne files to begin with?!??
ridiculously undervaluing the internet and other marvelous communications systems enabled
I think you are over-evaluating it. The internet is a nice way to deliver mediocre content to the masses. As far as a PhD is concerned, it isn't the most coveted tool they have. In fact, most of the important books are *not* on the internet. That is why number theory, quantum physics, and other such highly abstract disciplines had no problem evolving in an era when telephones were relatively new. To paraphrase: never underestimate the bandwidth of a wagon full of paper.
In modern times, the internet's help to science has mainly been around massive clusterd operations to brute force through numbers.
Anyways, I'm tired of talking about this subject, I already said it was a eutopia, but it's definitely not a eutopia for the reasons you cite. It seems to me you're just happy you left farm land, and are mesemerized by the colors you see in metropolis.
you know, it is like the matrix, it just can't be told. Maybe it's not for everyone...
But I personally have been in both extreme isolation, and in small communities (for example Ithaca, NY, or small towns near the Alps) they are way underrated IMHO.
Movies? Well, let me put it this way: when was the last movie that you saw that wasn't a focal point of flamewars/complaining about how bad the acting or director is/massive dissappointment?
Really good movies don't come from Hollywood. It's a myth. They come from Hollywood as much as they come from the Australian Outback...
As far as artisanal prowess goes, I think you may be from a generation of people that thinks the only information conduit is the net. Well, I'm sorry to say this, but it isn't. In fact, most revolutionary technical advances have been achieved pre-internet... on good ol' pen and paper.
Quoting darth Vader:
"Do not be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."
I personally believe in Socrates' (was it him?) 'metairie'. That is keeping communities small. I'm not necessarily talking about hippy communes here, but environments where survival is possible and almost desireable in a self sufficient way.
I don't think everything needs to be automated. I think most of the automation in the world today, or need for it, comes from the fact that we're overpopulating the areas we live in. In an extreme example: if everyone were to live a-la Amish peasant style, there would be absolutely no need for the automotive industry.
Now obviously that presents the issue of how do you get technological advance. Etc... But an interesting artifact of such a world is that small communities get much higher artisan talent. (clockworkers, smiths etc)
I concede very quickly that it's a eutopic view of the world... but hey...
I know of some extremely talented dancers who are basically on the poverty line. A ballet/ballerina will train from age 6 on upwards, and will probably get debilitatingly injured by the time they reach 25~30. Making on average, say about 50k a year...
How bout artistic divers, or gymnasts. 16 year old divers (at the peak of their career) will train around 26~30 hours a week (on top of school). You think the studs who go through the college football team train that many hours a week? at 16?
What do you have to say about that compared to the feats of athleticism and dedication required to play at the level of NFL players is just amazing
Really, NFL, NHL and NBA players get paid so much only because the sport is more appealing to a wider audience. Hence, as the article points out: fueling consumerism.
Ok, just to clear one thing up, I'm not saying California is right wing, I'm accusing the ancestor post who said that anyone who has three fellonies deserves to be raped at night...
Second, I'm not too sure about Guantanamo bay... And sadly for you, I'm not going to debate this on slashdot - of all places to waste my breath.
So what's *your* problem buster? Are you waiting to be raped tonight or what? Just fucking chill out already... And get off AC... you just sound like a 13 year old who's completely frustrated by his pimples and has nothing else to do but vent it out on slashdot.
Cause if you are, I take back the first half of my post... But I still persist in saying that nobody should be forced into bitchdom. Serving time is the punishment, not being rented off by Society as a sexual slave for x years.
b) I'm not defending californian criminals, I'm criticizing right wing extremists that believe that once you commit a crime, your rights as a human being should be taken away. But wait, who am I kidding, you guys have Guantanamo bay goin' on... ahhh. nevermind.
I just hope one day you accidentally speed, and get past your third offence. The first two being forgetting to pay a parking ticket, and honking in a no honk zone.
Then I want to hear you talk about how you enjoy being ass raped every evening before being tucked in your bed by some big biker that calls you his bitch.
Ah ha! Good point... but my counter to that: in M2 after the first Neo vs Agent fight scene is over, Smith comes in and says "that went as expected... it's happening exactly as before... well not exactly".
So it would appear smith has been through all 6, being exiled in each one but this is the first time Smith has become a virus, and that is why this reboot is different from the previous ones... Smith becomes a threat to the machine world itself, and that is why the machines make a truce with Neo at the end of M3.
If you think of it from a continuity perspective, Smith doesn't even need to become an exile in the previous 6 versions since Neo only inconsequently dabbles with him in M2 before going to the Source. Imagine M2 without the virus Smith, just a single exile smith or even no Smith at all... there was still steps for Neo to complete before reaching the Source (like talking to the Merovinjian).
Those are weak links at most... Sure, you can piggy back the matrix' story line to get some more juice out of it...
My favorite counter example is this: why is Agent Smith desperatly seeking the access codes to the Zion Mainframe in M1 when he should know full well (what with the 6 versions and all) that Zion will be overrun by sentinels anyways?
There are no loose threads from M1 that were answered in M2|3 that would have been unbelievable/aggravating had they been left unanswered... Hence, I think that, in concordance with Hokam's Razor, M1 was a standalone.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy M1 as a stand alone, but also as part of the trilogy. I'm just saying let's not bullshit ourselves here... the situation is obvious if you ask me.
that doesn't really prove anything. In the vein of the M3, saying the matrix is a trilogy is just a word. From a legal standpoint it's not binding at all...
Also, I go by Hokam's Razor principle: the M1 was stand alone and could live without a sequel.
M2 is completely transitionary from a story perspective, having no beginning nor end.
M3 is tightly coupled to M2.
From my perspective, just by the coupling between M2|3 and absolute lack of coupling between M1& M2|3, I am really convinced that M1 was meant to be M.
I'm going to need more proof than someone saying "I thought of the trilogy back then". My personal favorite discrepency is how in M1 agent smith wants the access codes to the Zion mainframe so he can 'go home'... Why would he want that if he knew (having been through several reboots of the matrix) Zion was going to be overrun by squids anyways?
Ok, I agree with you about the Asians and Africans... I meant the word western as a reference to consumerism... Basically a form of Emotional Consumersim. Only in opposition to a more zen, or easterm Budhist mentality.
I wasn't really targetting a geographic population.
By the way though, you can not experience a same emotion ever again... any moment lived is never relivable, even if just by the mere fact that the second time you live it, you have the extra memory of the first moment. It's like in the saying "you can never step twice in the same river" (because it will have flowed past you by the time you try to step again. - But that is just an/my opinion, and you don't have to be convinced of it really.
I must also add this because I just got the point: Smith doesn't see how assimilating Neo is his end because he doesn't understand that choice. He doesn't understand what it means to kill Neo... his anti-thesis basically. Hence why the Oracle says "Nobody can see past the choices they don't understand, even I can't" (nor her eyes for that matter).
The first time I saw MR, I was very dissappointed. The reason I was dissappointed was because there was so much action going on outside the matrix. I missed the M1 feeling of a Noire Detective story with myriads of mysteries... But I soon realized that was the key to enjoying the Matrix trilogy... M1 *was* a Noire Detective story, just like M2 was more of an action movie, a movie where the matrix itself was being exploited... an answer to everyone's internal desire to kick ass inside the matrix, now that we had disspelled that our world was just virtual.
The MRevs was yet another genre, it was about the fight for Zion... it was an Epic. Just like The Return of the King. And the scenes in it are great as far as an epic goes if you ask me.
The plot holes are annoying at best, but really they aren't so much bigger then the questions left pending at the end of M1.
Also, without digressing, I would like to mention that it is my firm belief M1 wasn't made with the intent of being the first of part of a trilogy... I believe the trilogy idea came later (when money started pouring in).
Despite that though, I would like to say MRevs was much better than M2 in the sense that it managed to return somewhat to the M1 mentality of "we aren't here to answer your questions... to tell you exactly why everything is the way it is. We're here to show you another story, put some unbelievable facts out in the open and leave you wondering."
I personally really liked the idea of there being sentient programs who basically come to live in the matrix as if it were a vacation resort of some sort. And the ideas raised in this one are just as valid - and arguably (by some, not me) - just as shallow (or deep) as the ones in the matrix.
All in all, it's very ironic to watch everyone practically spit on the screen because they came here expecting a movie like the M1... that story's already been told. If you wanted to see the Matrix again, go watch it again. How very typical of western culture to feel a great emotion for something, and then demand feeling that same emotion again... it's simply impossible: and that is why the M2|3 will never live up to some people's expectations.
Slashdot Mirror
Real player just wisened up recently and opened up Helix as a platform for serving content.
That is the only reason IMO that WMP files (such as ASX, or WMV) have gained popularity: because Microsoft makes it easy for business to distribute such content.
On the other hand, all 'free' content (trailers, personal movie clips etc), I've seen lately is predominantly on Quicktime.
So no, I still don't buy your claim.
Come on man, don't be blinded by hate, it's the *easiest* thing to embed a quicktime movie into a web page... what are you talking about?
If you still disagree, how come almost *all* movie trailers are .mov files? How does that qualify as monopolistic?
But this? Apparently Quicktime and RealOne suffered (those are the main parties at stake here)...
Well, *NEWS FLASH FOR EVERYONE*: WMP does *not* play .rm or .mov files!!!!
How can they be a monopoly on it if they don't support quicktime and RealOne files to begin with?!??
I think you are over-evaluating it. The internet is a nice way to deliver mediocre content to the masses. As far as a PhD is concerned, it isn't the most coveted tool they have. In fact, most of the important books are *not* on the internet. That is why number theory, quantum physics, and other such highly abstract disciplines had no problem evolving in an era when telephones were relatively new. To paraphrase: never underestimate the bandwidth of a wagon full of paper.
In modern times, the internet's help to science has mainly been around massive clusterd operations to brute force through numbers.
Anyways, I'm tired of talking about this subject, I already said it was a eutopia, but it's definitely not a eutopia for the reasons you cite. It seems to me you're just happy you left farm land, and are mesemerized by the colors you see in metropolis.
But I personally have been in both extreme isolation, and in small communities (for example Ithaca, NY, or small towns near the Alps) they are way underrated IMHO.
Movies? Well, let me put it this way: when was the last movie that you saw that wasn't a focal point of flamewars/complaining about how bad the acting or director is/massive dissappointment?
Really good movies don't come from Hollywood. It's a myth. They come from Hollywood as much as they come from the Australian Outback...
As far as artisanal prowess goes, I think you may be from a generation of people that thinks the only information conduit is the net. Well, I'm sorry to say this, but it isn't. In fact, most revolutionary technical advances have been achieved pre-internet... on good ol' pen and paper.
Quoting darth Vader:
"Do not be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."
Of import is the italicized part...
I don't think everything needs to be automated. I think most of the automation in the world today, or need for it, comes from the fact that we're overpopulating the areas we live in. In an extreme example: if everyone were to live a-la Amish peasant style, there would be absolutely no need for the automotive industry.
Now obviously that presents the issue of how do you get technological advance. Etc... But an interesting artifact of such a world is that small communities get much higher artisan talent. (clockworkers, smiths etc)
I concede very quickly that it's a eutopic view of the world... but hey...
How do you define it if not for a convoluted form of "mine! wanna buy?".
You know, everyone is bitching about the Matrices, but I can see slang and lingo from the films starting to crowd everyone's mouths already.
Not arguing whether or not it's a Bad Thing (Tm), just bringing up a curious comment.
I know of some extremely talented dancers who are basically on the poverty line. A ballet/ballerina will train from age 6 on upwards, and will probably get debilitatingly injured by the time they reach 25~30. Making on average, say about 50k a year...
How bout artistic divers, or gymnasts. 16 year old divers (at the peak of their career) will train around 26~30 hours a week (on top of school). You think the studs who go through the college football team train that many hours a week? at 16?
What do you have to say about that compared to the feats of athleticism and dedication required to play at the level of NFL players is just amazing
Really, NFL, NHL and NBA players get paid so much only because the sport is more appealing to a wider audience. Hence, as the article points out: fueling consumerism.
The universe is just a tree ripe for the plucking in the minds of monocle wearing billionaires.
Sigh, I can already imagine the wars that will be waged on once the Moon becomes a colony of the US.
Second, I'm not too sure about Guantanamo bay... And sadly for you, I'm not going to debate this on slashdot - of all places to waste my breath.
I think he didn't meant the innovation came from the migration of COBOL based systems, but rather integrating COBOL to the .NET CLI.
Cause if you are, I take back the first half of my post... But I still persist in saying that nobody should be forced into bitchdom. Serving time is the punishment, not being rented off by Society as a sexual slave for x years.
a) I don't live in california
b) I'm not defending californian criminals, I'm criticizing right wing extremists that believe that once you commit a crime, your rights as a human being should be taken away. But wait, who am I kidding, you guys have Guantanamo bay goin' on... ahhh. nevermind.
That's the problem with the point of view that "oh, if they're in prison, they deserve to be raped".
Then I want to hear you talk about how you enjoy being ass raped every evening before being tucked in your bed by some big biker that calls you his bitch.
So it would appear smith has been through all 6, being exiled in each one but this is the first time Smith has become a virus, and that is why this reboot is different from the previous ones... Smith becomes a threat to the machine world itself, and that is why the machines make a truce with Neo at the end of M3.
If you think of it from a continuity perspective, Smith doesn't even need to become an exile in the previous 6 versions since Neo only inconsequently dabbles with him in M2 before going to the Source. Imagine M2 without the virus Smith, just a single exile smith or even no Smith at all... there was still steps for Neo to complete before reaching the Source (like talking to the Merovinjian).
Shazam =)
My favorite counter example is this: why is Agent Smith desperatly seeking the access codes to the Zion Mainframe in M1 when he should know full well (what with the 6 versions and all) that Zion will be overrun by sentinels anyways?
There are no loose threads from M1 that were answered in M2|3 that would have been unbelievable/aggravating had they been left unanswered... Hence, I think that, in concordance with Hokam's Razor, M1 was a standalone.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy M1 as a stand alone, but also as part of the trilogy. I'm just saying let's not bullshit ourselves here... the situation is obvious if you ask me.
Also, I go by Hokam's Razor principle: the M1 was stand alone and could live without a sequel.
M2 is completely transitionary from a story perspective, having no beginning nor end.
M3 is tightly coupled to M2.
From my perspective, just by the coupling between M2|3 and absolute lack of coupling between M1& M2|3, I am really convinced that M1 was meant to be M.
I'm going to need more proof than someone saying "I thought of the trilogy back then". My personal favorite discrepency is how in M1 agent smith wants the access codes to the Zion mainframe so he can 'go home'... Why would he want that if he knew (having been through several reboots of the matrix) Zion was going to be overrun by squids anyways?
I wasn't really targetting a geographic population.
By the way though, you can not experience a same emotion ever again... any moment lived is never relivable, even if just by the mere fact that the second time you live it, you have the extra memory of the first moment. It's like in the saying "you can never step twice in the same river" (because it will have flowed past you by the time you try to step again. - But that is just an/my opinion, and you don't have to be convinced of it really.
Whop whooop... That makes perfect sense now.
I must add my $0.02 though. Here goes...
The first time I saw MR, I was very dissappointed. The reason I was dissappointed was because there was so much action going on outside the matrix. I missed the M1 feeling of a Noire Detective story with myriads of mysteries... But I soon realized that was the key to enjoying the Matrix trilogy... M1 *was* a Noire Detective story, just like M2 was more of an action movie, a movie where the matrix itself was being exploited... an answer to everyone's internal desire to kick ass inside the matrix, now that we had disspelled that our world was just virtual.
The MRevs was yet another genre, it was about the fight for Zion... it was an Epic. Just like The Return of the King. And the scenes in it are great as far as an epic goes if you ask me.
The plot holes are annoying at best, but really they aren't so much bigger then the questions left pending at the end of M1.
Also, without digressing, I would like to mention that it is my firm belief M1 wasn't made with the intent of being the first of part of a trilogy... I believe the trilogy idea came later (when money started pouring in).
Despite that though, I would like to say MRevs was much better than M2 in the sense that it managed to return somewhat to the M1 mentality of "we aren't here to answer your questions... to tell you exactly why everything is the way it is. We're here to show you another story, put some unbelievable facts out in the open and leave you wondering."
I personally really liked the idea of there being sentient programs who basically come to live in the matrix as if it were a vacation resort of some sort. And the ideas raised in this one are just as valid - and arguably (by some, not me) - just as shallow (or deep) as the ones in the matrix.
All in all, it's very ironic to watch everyone practically spit on the screen because they came here expecting a movie like the M1... that story's already been told. If you wanted to see the Matrix again, go watch it again. How very typical of western culture to feel a great emotion for something, and then demand feeling that same emotion again... it's simply impossible: and that is why the M2|3 will never live up to some people's expectations.